195 
/ 1 




-'Food for Starving Cattle on the Plains, 



A TREATISE 



ON 



MAIZE, CLOVER, 

SILOS AND ENSILAGE, 



KY 



JOHN F. BOYNTON, M. D. 

! 
( ^opyrigh t Sic iired. 



:e»:ei-^ii^ie t^oididieiti $1.00 p'.bi^ rr<oi^_ 



"O/i, JUnv I pity the stiu'viAg, 
Freezing Cattle on the Plains.'' 

— Pullman Passenger. 



SYRACUSE, N. Y.: 

{OLUMHIA PRESS, HERALD BUILDING 

1 884. 



Fooi for Starving Cattle on tk PliiiH. 



A TREATISE 



ON 



MAIZE, CLOVER, 

SILOS AND ENSILAGE, 



BY 

JOHN F. BOYNTON, M. D 

Copyrigh t ^lc u rt d. 



^r^-A^ir^IE ^OHDIDIE]^ $3_.00 I=:E.:E^ TOI^T_ 



''Oh, hoav I pity the staii'iug. 
Freezing Cattle on the Plains." 

— Pullman Passenger. 



:^>W»^ 



' U6 2C 1884/ 

SYRACUSE, N. v.: 'v., /^/f? O^^ ' 

Ct LIMHIA PRESS. HERALD i:iII.DINC, V "^ f' F" W'A.^tt\1l 

1884. 



TO THE FARMERS OF THF 

^'AMERICAN, BOYNTON ASSOCIATION^' 

/ Cheerfully Dedicate 

The fallowtfig pages : 

The}^ are the results of experiments and thoughts during- 
leisure hours while I was lecturing in the years 1878 and 1879 
on Geology, Agricultural Chemistry, Fertilization of "worn 
out farms" and exhausted soil. ^ They were intended as serials 
for a periodical, written, laid aside and nearly forgotten, until 
I was induced by friends to publish in the present form. 

On reading Monsieur Auguste Goffart's communication on 
" Silos and Ensilage," I became interested in the doings of 
several gentlemen who were among the first to construct Silos 
in America. 

I watched the effects of this kind of fodder upon cattle which 

had subsisted on it for several months at a time, and my belief 

in its usefulness is stronger to-day than it was when I finished 

writing these pages more than three years ago. 

Yours respectfully, 

John F. Boynton, M. D. 

Highland Place, Syracuse, N. Y. 
August 14, 1884. 



^ 






SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 



What is a silo? The word Silo is from the Spanish, 
meaning a cell or pit, and as now used means a cell or 
pit for storing and preserving green food, for cattle, for 
the purpose of feeding to them in the winter season. 

ENSILAGE. 

What is ensilage? Food that has been put into this 
cell or pit, and preserved therein is en-cellated food and is 
called ensilage. The bee en-cells its honey; honey is 
therefore a natural. encellated food, or ensilage for the bee. 
Some birds, also as the Carpenter bird of California, and 
some animals, as the squirrel encell (or store) their food, 
the former by burrowing in the thick bark of trees, the 
latter in holes and pits in the ground and in trees. These 
are all instances of encelling or storing food by nature's 
process. 

The practice of encelling food for animals, though only 
recently introduced among our farmers, has come down 
to us, we have reason to believe, from the most ancient 
times. For instance, in the country of Moab, in the lime- 
stone rocks, immense numbers of cavities or cells are now 
to be seen, wherein the Moabites probably stored their 
grain, and other dry food, wherein they also encelled their 
GREEN food, the former to be used as food for men, and 
both as fodder for animals. 



— 6 — 

The modern practice of putting green food for cattle 
into a cell, or pit made into, or upon the ground comes 
from Southern Europe, and is most likely taken from the 
Syracusans (as the name Silo implies), and was undoubt- 
edly first introduced into South America by missionaries, 
and thence into other portions of the Western Continent. 

THE BUILDING OF THE SILO. 

How to build a Silo : Select a place in high, dry ground, 
where an excavation can be made 10 or 15 feet in depth 
without reaching water, or being in danger from surface 
water. The width and length may be according to the 
convenience of the builder, or as may be required for the 
amount of green food to be stored for stock ; but the most 
convenient width for general use is from 12 to 14 or 16 
feet, as lumber is usually sawed in these lengths, and a 
good proportionate length for a width of 12, or 14 feet, is 36 
feet or more, say 48 the length, depending upon the quan- 
tity of food to be stored. Having made the excavation, 
w^all it up with stones, or brick and mortar, or concrete 
may be used, being careful that the walls are vertical. 
Then plaster the walls with a rich mortar, making a 
smooth surface. The cell is now made. 

Now take planks 8 to 12 inches in width, and length 
corresponding to the width of the cell or pit. These 
p)lanks are to be used in covering and pressing down the 
green food in the pit, as will be explained. The pit or 
silo is now ready to be filled. 

FILLING THE PIT OR SILO. 

How to fill a silo : Go to the field and cut down the 
green corn, gather up and cart to the silo. These corn- 



— 7 



stalks or other green fodders are to be chopped or cut into 
lengths of one-half inch, or even shorter would be better ; 
stalks, leaves and green ears being all cut together, 
thrown in to the silo and firmly trodden down as thrown 
in. Some persons have found this process of treading 
down the fodder most conveniently performed by a horse 
and two or three men or boys. Every farmer will know 
how to arrange a temporary gangway for letting the 
horse down into the pit in the first place. The best 
method of cutting, is to have a strong hay cutter run by 
one or two horse power (or portable steam engine), as is a 
threshing machine. 

When the silo is full and compactly trodden down (it is 
not necessary that the pit should be absolutely full before 
covering), the planks are to be placed on the chopped 
corn, or other fodder. And I w^ould advise that a thin 
batton three or four inches wide be placed under the join- 
ing of the planks, so that the air cannot pass in througn 
the cracks. Having well covered, all the surface of the 
fodder the planks should be weighted down with about 150 
pounds to the square foot, this pressure being for the pur- 
pose of excluding all the air possible from the chopped 
material. Now as the planks settle down upon the 
contents of the silo, if the walls have not been made true 
and smooth, the planks will catch, and not only injure 
the walls, but leave a space for the air to come in contact 
with the ensilage, which should be avoided. The amount 
of settling and compressing of the contents will depend 
greatly upon the firmness with which it has been packed 
and the amount of weight placed upon it. One silo ex- 
amined which was 14x36 feet, trodden by a horse and two 



— 8 — 

boys, settled only six inches under the weight of nearly 
thirty tons of boulder stones. Where stones, or other 
heavy material are not to be had, clay, or any other heavy 
earth (not gritty) can be thrown as weight on top of the 
planks, and will be found very convenient, as it can be 
shoveled off and allowed to remain in side heaps for an- 
other season. Heavy earth, like clay, has also the advan- 
tage of securing tighter joints. Also as it becomes dry 
from one season to the next, this earth can be moistened 
either before or after being thrown on again, so that it will 
pack more firmly. Or, if found more convenient, bolts 
of logs three or four feet long can be used as weightage. 
Suggestions of this kind will present themselves to the 
mind of any thinking farmer. At this point I make one 
suggestion. Some persons place dry straw over the con- 
tents of the pit before placing on the planks, so that this 
straw comes between the fodder and the planks, thinking 
that by this means they best exclude the air. But the 
solid planks alone are best, as the planks lying next to 
the ensilage are better than any straw, for the straw is 
liable to become mouldy and to decay, as it holds more 
air, which promotes decomposition and thus effects the 
surface of the ensilrge beneath it. The great secret in 
filling the silo and preserving the contents consists sim- 
ply in pressing out, as nearly as possible all the air, and 
by close covering, protecting the ensilage from air getting 
in and from all external atmospheric influences whatever. 
The silo being filled, pressed down and thoroughly cov- 
ered, the contents are now allowed to remain for months, 
if necessary, or until wanted for use, when it may be 
opened in the following way : 



— 9 — 

Take off three or four planks at one end of the silo, and 
remove the ensilage as wantei until the bottom of the pit 
is reached, thus leaving the mass of ensilage with a clean 
cut wall. Continue to remove plank by plank, as the en- 
silage is needed, always cutting through from the top to 
the bottom, before removing another plank, and so on un- 
til the silo is emptied. As the planks are removed from 
time to time it would be well to set them up endways at 
the opened end of the pit. 

Mr. Austin Avery, President of the Milk Association of 
Syracuse, N. Y., has- his silo built on the side of a hill, 
beneath his barns, so that a door enters through the 
walled side near the end Having once cut down to the 
bottom, he can subsequently enter this cleared place by 
this doorway and thus the remaining ensilage, as it is taken 
down, always from the top, after removing a few planks, 
can be more conveniently taken out through this door. 
If found more convenient the ensilage can be raised from 
the silo in a bucket or basket, arranged on pulleys with a 
windlass; or an inclined passage way can be made lead- 
ins: from the outside to a door in the wall of the silo, in a 
way similar to that described in Mr. Avery's silo. If the 
silo is built outside of a building already erected it will 
be necessary to well roof it, so as to protect the contents 
from the weather during the process of filling, and after- 
wards. 

Care must be taken that the eaves of the roof extend a 
good distance over the edges of the silo walls, leaving a 
margin of earth that will not become saturated with 
water, and it would be well to carry off the water from the 



— 10 — 

roof by means of eaves spouts. This margin of dry earth 
can be further protected by grouting around the build- 
ing, coal-tar asphalts (pitch) and gravel, such as is used 
for sidewalks, being the cheapest for this purpose, or if 
more convenient cement can be used. The object of keep- 
ing this margin of dry earth around the silo is to guard 
against water being absorbed by the soil, then freezing, 
expanding, and displacing the walls. As the roof of the 
silo is merely for protecting the contents from the rain 
and snow, it will be only necessary to construct it as w^e 
do the covers of our salt vats at Syracuse, which are so ar- 
ranged that one man can run them on and off readily ; so 
that when filling the silo, or when wishing to take out 
any ensilage it may be opened and closed, or partly so, 
with a mere push of the hand. These roofs are perma- 
nent, and are secured with a hasp, so that the wind will not 
blow them off, and they keep the vats closed, and thor- 
oughly protected from the weather. Of course, in 
this case the silo must be finished off with a plate 
for the roof to stand upon. A great part of the above 
precaution will be found unnecessary if the silo is built 
under some portion of a barn, or other suitable building 
already constructed. I would recommend the construc- 
tion of a silo at one side of the barn floor so as to cart the 
corn directly on to the floor of the barn, where the cutter 
and power can be arranged in such a way that the chopped 
fodder may fall directly into the silo as fast as cut. Every 
farmer, or stock raiser will have ingenuity enough to de- 
vise means for carrying out details of this plan according 
to circumstances. 



— 11 — 

WILL THIS ENSILAGE KOT? 

This is a question frequently asked ; will or will not, 
this encellated food rot in this silo, and become unfit for 
fodder? It will not, if prepared at the right time and in 
the right way. The way has been stated above and should 
be strictly followed, and, if followed, the ensilage will keep 
good during the feeding season of the fall, winter and 
spring months. 

It will also keep well in the Southern States during the 
shorter winters, in which the}^ are obliged to feed their 
cattle. The time is now to be considered. 

WHEN SHALL THE COliN BE CUT? 

All amimated nature reaches its perfection during the 
season of fecundation. The bird displays his most gorge- 
ous plumage and sings his sweetest song at the time when 
he seeks his mate, and at this time, literally as well as fig- 
uratively, when the male or fertilizing principle is most 
active, the birds are in the full sweetness and perfection 
of their being. The mating season over, and the young 
birds hatched, the song of the male dies away, his plum- 
age loses its brilliancy, and he returns to his normal con- 
dition. It is at this season, too, that the glow^ worm trims 
its lamp, and shines the brighter to attract its less brilliant 
mate. Even the cold-blooded and unim passioned fish, as 
the season of reproducing its kind approaches, with quick- 
ened powers brightens its gilded scales, though obedient 
only to natural law. So with vegetable life. All the 
grasses, corn which is only a mammotli grass, plants, etc., 
contain their greatest amount of sweetness, and are in 
their utmost perfection at the fertilizing season when root 



— 12 — 

nnd stalk and every tender blade is filled' with its richest 
juices, the whole plant conlains the greatest amount of 
nourishment, while the blossom when in its perfect state 
throws off its soft aroma to the air. All plants are in 
their sweetest and most vigorous condition when in blos- 
som. They then hold the most nutriment, the tissues 
are more tender, more easily digested (having less woody 
fibre) are more palatable, and are eaten with a greater 
relish by the animal. At this time much of the cellulose 
of the stalks is in a partly gelatinous condition, and is 
easily acted upon by the weaker acids and is most readily 
digested and assimilated. 

The corn stalks are in the most favorable condition to 
be used as ensilage when the pollen is just ripe, that is, 
when the spire is in full bloom a-'^d beginning to shed its 
pollen upon the silking .ear below. At this time the corn 
stalk is filled to repletion with juices, has its full amount 
of sugar and starch, of albuminous, nitrogenous and hy- 
dro-carbonaceous (or fatty, buttery) compounds and pro- 
teine substances; it is now better adapted for mastication, 
to the digestive and assimilating functions of the animal 
economy, and is altogether in its perfected state for sup- 
porting animal life. 

I have spoken of the silking ear. Yes; for the silk of 
the ear is but a tassel of vital tubes, their office being to 
absorb and carry the pollen's vital energy, or fertilizing 
principle to the forming, swelling germs in the ear; there- 
fore, when the corn, putting on the adornment of its early 
green, its stalks and blade and ear swelling with the full 
flow of its perfect sweetness, and its silken threads have 
colored themselves with their daintiest gold, the whole 



1 o 

— io — 

plant has reached the stage of its vital maturity and its 
acme of natritive powers as food for animals. Then, and 
not till then, the pollen tr-embling on top of the slender 
spire, is showered upon these drooping threads of silk, the 
fertilizing principle is carried down through these deli- 
cate tubes to the waiting germ below and each kernel is 
fertilized and vitalized and developed into the pe'rfect 
grain. 

From this point the plant now advances to its ligneous 
or woody condition, and its better qualities are now car- 
ried farward to ripen and plump the seed as a store house 
for the coming life, that the plant may continue its 
species. ■ 

There is a silken tube for every germ, for every kernel 
of corn that is to find its place upon the perfect ear ; and 
therefore should the wind blow some of the pollen dust 
away, for every tube that does not receive its portion oi 
pollen or fructifying principle there will be an undevel- 
oped germ and a blasted kernel ; although other causes, as 
injuries, etc., may prevent the development of the full 
vital power of the germ. 

It is at this quickening season of fructification, there- 
fore, when all animate nature is most active, that grasses, 
corn, and food nourishing plants generally for animals 
and man contain, as we have seen, the sum of all their 
nutritive qualities. When the pollen, then, is falling and 
the kernel is first in the milk, is the most favorable time 
for cutting and gathering corn stalks for the silo. An 
experienced farmer will know how to average the gather- 
ing of his corn, as some varieties of corn will drop their 
pollen earlier than others. 



— 14 — 

WHAT KIND OY CORN SHALL BE USED? 

I am of the opinion that corn of the largest growth is 
the most advantageous for encelling, as it furnishes the 
most fodder. 

Hence I would use Dent or Southern corn, as the North- 
ern season will furnish sufficient time for the stalk to 
grow, and for the purpose of encelling we do not wait for 
the grain, but only for the pollen to ripen. In experi- 
ments made in grinding and crushing corn stalks for 
sugar making I have found that the stalk of one variety 
of corn contains about as much sugar (or sweetness) as 
another of the same weight, if cut at the right season; 
but the varieties of sweet corns have their special sweet- 
ness in the kernel, a portion of its starch having been 
converted into natural glucose. 

In planting this corn I would never sow nearer than 
about six inches for the larger varieties of corn, and about 
four inches for the smaller, the drills being from three and 
one-half to four feet apart, depending upon the variety of 
corn used. 

Georgia corn stalks are extremely succulent, full of 
sugar, starch, gelatinous, partly digestable cellulose. They 
sometimes grow to about sixteen feet in height and 
nearly seven inches in circ umference, and, in favorable 
soils, have very long, broad leaves. 

One ton of Southern corn stalks will yield twice as 
much fodder as Northern corn. Twelve green Southern 
corn stalks have been known to weigh forty pounds. 
Some Kansas corn shown at the Centennial was said 



— 15 — 

to be eighteen feet liigli and over seven inches in cir- 
cumference at the butt when green 

If the people of Kansas and Nebraska would encell 
their green corn while in blossom there would be no 
cause of their stock starving in the winter. 

Manure well, plough deep, and plant when the soil is 
in good condition. Do not sow the corn, but plant it, 
and do not plant too thick. I should recommend to use 
one-half to one bushel of Georgia, Dent or Southern seed 
corn to the acre, as the kernel of some of the Southern 
corn is as large as two or three of the ordinary Northern 
kernels. 

As corn extracts from the soil a large quantity of pot- 
ash, wood ashes will be found a valuable fertilizer, par- 
ticularly on old lands. Use unleached ashes, ten to twelve 
bushels to the acre (if leached ashes are used then triple 
the quantity). The farmer will find this a good invest- 
ment. 

Use, then, good seed corn of sucli varieties as you think 
may be best adapted to your soil and climate, recollecting 
that but few weeks are required for the larger varieties 
to reach their blossoming period. I repeat the caution to 
use only a good quality of seed corn. If you have it in 
the ear, shell off the tips and butts and feed them to your 
fowls and stock, reserving the sound central kernels of 
the ear for planting if you want healthy, even growing- 
shoots and the corn to be of average size and growth; and 
rest assured that by following this plan, if the larger va- 
rieties of corn have been planted, you will be rewarded 
with a bountiful crop of from forty to eighty tons to the 
acre, when the nurture of the sunshine and the rain has 



— 16 — 

not been withheld and the seasons in their regular round 

have been favoriible. 

« 

Should any of the planted kernels of corn fail to germ- 
inate and come up, or be destroyed by the cut worm, 
crow, etc., an earlier corn can be planted (being first 
soaked) in these vacant places in the drills, and this ear- 
lier variety will reach the blossoming period at the same 
time as the corn of larger growth. The old rule is to 
"make hny while the sun shines," but the advantage (and 
it is a good one) of this process of encelling fodder is that 
the corn can be gathered, cut and encelled in cloudy and 
damp weather, when hay cannot be made, and thus the 
" coming farmer" can literally be making hay (or fodder) 
without the aid of sunshine. 



I 

I 



SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 

The Economy of Ensilage — Cost of Feeding — Yield 
— Production. (Mr. J. M. Bailey.) 

It is stated on good authority that the lowest cost at 
which a cow can be kept in Eastern Massachusetts is 22 
cents per day for feed, allowing nothing for care except 
the manure. 

This amounts to forty dollars and fifteen cents for one 
cow for six months. Now let us see what ensilage 
will do. 

First let us find what it will cost to lay the corn fodder 
down in the silo, where it becomes ensilage. 

In a country where corn growls thriftily and wages are 
one dollar and fifty cents per day (or average that), the 



— 17 — 

corn fodder can be raised, cut, and stored in the silo for 
one dollar per ton (of ensilage) and this ton of ensilage, 
if good ensilage rightly prepared, is believed to be equal 
to more than one-half ton of " Timothy Herd's grass,'' 
hay, which sells at from ten dollars to twenty dollars per 
ton, according to the supply of the season and the price 
at any particular locality. One gentleman, on being 
asked, told me that it cost him about eighty cents to one 
dollar per ton for cutting the corn in the field, hauling it 
to the cutter, chopping it about half an inch in length 
and packing it in the silo ; " much depending," he added, 
on horse feed, wages and board. 

This may be a close calculation, but without doubt, 
taking the results of many practical experiments, a fair 
and even liberal general calculation for the cost of rais- 
ing, gathering; hauling, cutting and laying the corn fod- 
der in the silo, packed, pressed and covered, is not more 
than one mill per pound, or two dollars per ton. Upon 
this basis let us see what it will cost to keep one cow on 
ensilage alone for six months, the longest feeding season. 
One cubic foot of ensilage, well pressed, will weigh about 
fifty pounds. This is about sufficient for one days' ra- 
tions for one cow. Now there are about forty cubic feet 
in one ton of well pressed ensilage, therefore one ton of 
ensilage will keep one cow forty days. Taking the calcu- 
lation of two dollars per ton for the ensilage, the cost per 
day of keeping one cow on ensilage alone is as two dol- 
lars divided by forty, which is five cents per day; the cost 
of keeping one cow on ensilage for six months would 
therefore be nine dollars and twelve and one-half cents. 

This is even a liberal calculation, for, as I shall show 



— 18 — 

further on, forty pounds of ensilage per clay has been 
found sufficient to keep an animal in healthy condition 
when not working, giving milk, or carrying calf. Now 
if it take one cubic foot of ensilage per day for one cow it 
will require 182^, or, in round numbers, 180 cubic feet to 
keep her six months. The silo to hold this amount of 
ensilage would only need to be six feet long by three feet 
wide and by ten feet deep, which equals 180 cubic feet, 
the size required. Calculating 50 pounds of ensilage to 
the cubic foot — a fair average — this size silo will hold 4^ 
tons of ensilage. 

These figures are, of course, subject to some variations, 
according to the compactness of the ensilage and the 
amount of water in it. Also the proportions here given 
for the silo can be varied from somewdiat, so as to allow 
room for settling, for the planks and for the weightage 
for compression. 

HOW MUCH ENSILAGE CAN BE GKOWN TO THE ACRE? 

It has been absolutely proved that 75 tons of corn fod- 
der can be raised to the acre. If this quantity can be 
raised north, in the Eastern States, it is surely not too 
much to assert that 100 tons to the acre could be reached 
in our fertile prairies and in many portions of the South- 
ern States. And if such quantities can be produced with 
our Northern corn, what results might we not look for 
when the large growing corns and sorghums are used in 
their own congenial climates in the place of maize as they 
are destined to be in the near future. 

In some debates before the Onondaga Farmers' Club it 
was stated that " two tons of this ensilage are worth more 



— 19 — 

to feed than four tons of common corn fodder, or than one 
ton of the best Timothy hay." Or, in other words, that 
one ton of ensilage is more than equal in feeding power 
to two tons of common corn fodder or to one-half ton of 
hay. 

We have seen that 50 pounds of ensilage per day is ra- 
tions for one cow. Now 50 pounds per day equals 9|- 
tons for the year for one cow. This clearly shows that 
one acre of Southern corn producing easily an average of 
70 tons to the acre, will more than keep seven cows for 
one year. 

It has been found that one cubic foot (50 pounds) of 
ensilage will keep one sheep one week. 

It is admitted that from 40 to 75 tons of corn fodder or 
ensilage can be easily raised upon an acre, and is about 
equal to from 'jO to 37J tons of good hay ; or to state it 
more simpl}^, one ton of ensilage is fully equal in feeding 
powers to one-half ton of the best hay. Or, to express it 
in dollars and cents, two dollars worth of ensilage is equal 
in feeding value to from five to ten dollars worth of hay, 
accor-ling to price of the latter. 

The following statement and calculation chows the im- 
mense comparative value of corn fodder raised for en- 
silage over hay : 

COMPARATIVE PROFIT OF ONE ACRE OF ENSILAGE OVER 
ONE ACRE OF TIMOTHY HAY. 

We have shown that one acre can be made to produce 
70 tons of fodder, which, laid down as ensilage, will feed 
seven cows for one year. One acre, in the same high state 
of cultivation can be made to produce three tons of Tim- 



— 20 — 

othy hay. As it takes four toiio of hay to feed one cow 
one year, this three tons of hay will feed f of a cow for 
the same thue; and the gain, therefore, in number of 
cows fed on the acre of ensilage is 6J cows. 

The question is, what is the cost of the acre of ensilage 
over the acre of hay and what is the value of the product 
of the gain of 6^ cows. The cost to the farmer of cutting 
and housing three tons of Timothy should not exceed five 
dollars; while the cost of 70 tons of ensilage, at the very 
high estimate of two dollars per ton, would be $140. We, 
therefore, charge the ensilage with the difference of $135, 
and credit the product of the 6^ cows, which in butter 
and increase of stock could hardly be less than $40 for 
each cow, or $250. This shows as a gain in favor of en- 
silage of $115, as an offset to the extra labor of taking- 
care of the 6 J cows is the great increase in the manure. 
It is for the practical farmer to consider this point; that 
by means of ensilage he need take but a small portion of 
his farm for the feeding of his stock, leaving a large, and, 
if he will, the larger portion of his land for raising hay 
for baling or market use ; and whether it is more to his 
profit to sell hay at three tons to the acre than to increase 
his stock and its products. 

One thing is certain, that a man can raise on a small 
portion of land more feed for stock in this form of ensi- 
lage than in the form of hay, and, therefore, by means of 
silos and ensilage, he can triple or quadruple the number 
of his cattle, including sheep, hogs, etc., as a few acres 
manured and cultivated on correct scientific agricultural 
principles will yield larger proportionate results in stock 
than hundreds of acres cultivated as heretofore. 



I 



— 21 — 

Practical and correct experiments with silos and ensi- 
lage have already proved beyond question that by mean? 
of ensilage larger herds of stock can be raised on the farm 
and that the stock thus raised will be in better and health- 
ier condition than by the old ways, and at a less cost of 
labor, while neiting better pecuniary results. 

It must be borne in mind that all the figures and cal- 
culations given above about crops, yield and production, 
will depend greatly upon soil, climate, tillage, how well 
fertilized, the kind of corn planted, the variations of the 
seasons, and other natural causes affecting the growth of 
crops. 

But if this ensilage will do only one-half of what we 
assert that it will do, it still proves that it is far superior 
to any mode of feeding or boarding stock that has j^et 
been made known, and is certain to produce the most re- 
markable revolution that has ever taken place in agri- 
culture. 

Mr. J. M. Bailey, of Winning Farm, has proved by ex- 
periments upDu bullocks that 40 pounds of ensilage, con- 
taining 80 per cent, of water, fed daily without any other 
food, was sufficient to sustain the functions of the animal 
in a healthy condition. If a gain in live weight is needed, 
however, or it is necessary to replace waste tissue as in 
cows giving milk, oxen or other draught animals, when 
working, or to replace accumulating tissue, as in cows car- 
rying calves, then it becomes necessary to add other food^ 
as bran, or other foods containing proteine and fattening 
substances. 

During the period of gestation the cow must consume 
and appropriate an amount of food equal to the weight o 



22 — 

the being she produces, or else there must be a draught 
upon her own physical structure. Whon a cow is giving 
milk her system must be more than merely sustained, as 
she is yielding a product of a certaiu number of pounds 
per day, according to the quantity and quality of milk 
she produces. 

This amount of her product, then, must be re-supplied 
by an amount and kind of nourishment equal to the 
amount and quality of her production. 

Now, will an increased quantity of ensilage alone, with- 
out other food, supply this demand? This is an import- 
ant question which I am now having thoroughly tested 
by a number of practical experiments. If ensilage alone 
will do this, well and good; if not, then sprouts, bran, 
corn, shorts or other nitrogenous foods must be added in 
the required quantity. 

By this system of preparing encellated food for cattle 
instead of the ordinary fodder, a great saving of both 
labor and space is gained. 

The several processes of mowing, spreading, raking, 
cocking, haycapping, pitching, loading, unloading, stack- 
ing and stowing away in barns are all dispensed with, and 
the space thus saved can now be used for stabling and 
other more economical uses than mowing bulky hay 
which contains less palatable food, in proportion to the 
space occupied, than does tlie closely packed ensilage; and 
instead of the hay for stock this space can now be occu- 
pied by the stock itself, in increased numbers. 

An important consideration in this system of encelling 
food is that the surplus or residue of many vegetable 
growths, to be found on every farm, can all, or nearly all, 



— 23 — 

be made to contribute their portion to the silo. If you 
have any kind of grass, clover, timothy, millet or Hun- 
garian grass in bloom, green oats, rye, pea vines, sugar beet 
leaves, or any other vegetables that cows relish, and that 
will not give a bad aroma to the milk or butter, cut and mix 
them with the chop as it goes into the silo. 

The practical economy of this system of encelling fod- 
der, as well as its adaptability to all circumstances, will 
perhaps be best understood by the following 

ILLUSTRATION. 

The poor woman with only one cow, can store up a large 
quantity of. food for winter use in a very small space. She 
can improvise a silo, by taking some clean old casks or 
boxes, and setting them in the ground where they will keep 
cool, not freeze, and be free from water, or place them un- 
der a shed and fill them with the chopped produce of her 
little garden plot. A large quantity of green food can 
thus be encelled in a cask or other convenient receptacle, 
care being taken that it is properly weighted down, and 
the air thoroughly excluded. As fast as her corn is ready, 
she can chop it fine, put it into the cask, press it, 
and weight it down with stones (about 150 to 200 
pounds) laid on the cover, which should be made a little 
smaller than the cask or box. A piece of India rubber 
cloth might be conveniently made use of to place over 
the cliop before pressing down the head or settler, and by 
securing this cloth tight around the settling head, the air 
would be excluded, and the ensilage well preserved. This 
ensilage she can begin to use as soon as the fall pastur- 



— 24 — 

age gives out, care being taken to re-cover it closely each 
time any ensilage is removed. 

He who has the boldness first to inaugurate among his 
own countrymen a new era, should have accorded to him 
the full credit resulting from his success, and therefore to 
Mr. J. M. Bailey, of Massachusetts, is due the honor of 
having been one of the first to make silos and ensilage a 
successful experiment in this country. 

The following table by Mr. Bailey, comparing the ex- 
penses of a farm, cultivated in the old way luithout en- 
silage, and in the new way with ensilage, must be of in- 
terest to all farmers who have tried, or ought to try, silos 
and en celled fodder. 

ESTIMATED AMOUNT OF FIFTY ACRE FARM, BY J. M. BAILEY 
OF WINNING FARM, FIFTEEN COWS, WITHOUT ENSILAGE. 

EXPENDITURE. 

Six per cent, interest on farm, value $5,000 $300 00 

Repairs on buildings, 2}4 per cent on $2,000 50 00 

Taxes on farm, $40; on stock, $10 50 00 

Interest on stock and farming tools 90 00 

Wages and board of hired man, 9 months, at $30.. 270 00 
Depreciation on stock and farming tools 

at 10 per cent 150 00 

Total expense ,. $910 00 

Total income on 15 cows 2,000 quarts milk per 

cow, at 3 cents 900 00 

Deficiency $10 00 



— 25 — 

SAME FARM WITH ENSILAGE, 28 COWS, 100 SHEEP, 7 HOGS. 

EXPENDITURE. 

Interest on farm, stock, silos, manure and sheep- 
shed $ 561 70 

Wages, one hired man, 6 mcnths, at $25 150 00 

Repairs 50 00 

Taxes and insurance 80 00 

Meal and bran, 4 pounds jier cow, per day 280 00 

Grain for sheep and horses 150 00 

Total expense... $1,271 70 

INCOME. 

5,600 pounds butter at 10 cents $ 560 00 

14,000 pounds pork at 3 cents 420 00 

28 yearlings, at $10 280 00 

700 pounds wool at 30 cents 210 00 

901ambs,(cotswold)at$4 360 00 

Total income $1,830 00 

Profit $ 558 30 

In a letter from Mr. August Goffart, of Burtin, France, 
w^hose name will go down to posterity as one of the great- 
est benefactors of his race, he being the first to make suc- 
cessful experiments in silos and ensilage, written to Mr. 
J. B Brown, President of the New York Plow Company. 
He states : 

"The longer experience I have in feeding ensilage to 
stock, the more I am convinced of the great service it will 
render to agriculture. From October, 1878, to October, 
1879, I fed the hundred animals in my stable ex- 



— 26 — 

clusively with corn ensilage during the winter, and con- 
currently with fresh maize (corn) at the time when I had 
it. The animals have always enjoyed the most excellent 
health, and I can assure you that they have more appe- 
tite for the ensilage than for the fresh fodder, whatever 
kind it may be. In reckoning 6 per cent of the weight 
of the animal for its daily food, I arrive at an expense of 
3f of a cent per day to feed an animal of 1,320 pounds, 
and the total cost of ensilage ready to be fed at 90 cents 
per ton." 

This low rate of cost given by Mr. GofFart may be easily 
accounted for by the cheapness of labor in France, and by 
the fact that the French peojDle are more economical in 
their general methods of w^ork than we are in this country. 

BENEFICIAL EFFECTS OF ENSILAGE UPON ANIMALS. 

Ensilage is more relished by the cow than any food 
that can be given in the winter season, and in every 
known instance milch cows have increased the quantity 
of milk when fed upon ensilage, the increase beginning 
at once from the first day of feeding. 

In the course of my investigations upon this subject, of 
silos and ensilage, I have examined hundreds of 
cattle fed upon ensilage and always with the following 
results : — Their eyes were bright, their teeth clean and 
white, breath sweet, skin soft, their hair smooth and sleek, 
and, in fact, they all looked healthy. All the herds that 
I have seen appeared contented and satisfied with their 
food, devouring it with avidity. They would at all times 
leave any other food when they could get ensilage. Mr. 
Austin Avery, President of the Onondaga County Milk 



I 



— 27 — 

Association, and a thrift}^ farmer, near Syracuse, N. Y., 
keeps 72 milch cows fed on ensilage with an equal quan- 
tity of dried corn stalks, cut and steamed. He told me 
his cows gave each one quart more milk when fed on 
ensilage than when fed on hay with shorts, meal or bran. 
Also that his milk, butter and cheese are as good, if not 
better, than when fed the old way. His horse is also fed 
on this ensilage and he is in better condition than when 
fed with hay and the usual quantity of provender and is 
doing his ordinary work. 

In a visit paid by me to Mr. Van Orten's silo on his 
farm in Spring Valley, N. Y., he very kindly gave me the 
following information in regard to the effect of ensilage 
ur)on his animals and their products : 

"All cows eat it with a relish. Three cows, newly pur- 
chased, did not eat it at first, as they were homesick, and 
gave but little milk, but when they became wonted to the 
place, and after they had eaten the ensilage, they came to 
an increase in their milk. Fresh cows, new to the 
ensilage, increased all of two quarts per day. Cows taken 
from grass and put on ensilage with some sprouts, meal, 
bran, etc., increased in milk over the grass feed." He fed 
about one bushel of ensilage to which he added, in some 
cases, two quarts of corn meal, in others four quarts of 
ground wheat middlings, to take the place of corn meal, 
(this being food for butter). 

Some of his corn stalks were 13 feet high, had 16 leaves 
to the stalk, and were 1}( inches in diameter at the 
ground. ^^^ 

Among other important advantages of ensilage is the 
fact that it does not physic or bloat animals. 



— 28 — 

LIVING DUST. 

A!l bay, grains and dried vegetables, bave more or less 
dust upon tbem, wbich on disturbing the hay, etc., rises 
and fills the air, is taken in by the breath and consumed 
by the cattle together with the hay and other vegetable 
fodder. 

Now the larger proportion of this dust, is living dust, 
and is made up of microscopic germs of fungi and spores 
which excite fermentation in vegetable infusions. 
Nine-tenths of the dust arising from poorl\^ cured hay, is 
found on miscroscopic examination to be composed of 
spores, which when fed to cattle in large quantities are 
liable to produce disease. 

Rust, ergot and other fungoids on rye, smut on oats, 
wheat and corn, the various blights and destructive mil- 
dews on grasses and other vegetable growths; all these are 
but congregated masses of disease-producing spores. 

Diseases of cattle, and even of man, are known to follow 
and correspond with the seasons when the various smuts 
and mildews of grains and other vegetable growths pre- 
vail ; in other words, past observations have revealed the 
fact that the diseases of cattle follow the fungoid condi- 
tion of their fodder. 

Musty and mouldy hay that fills the barn with living 
dust, or the dust that may become alive when warmed by 
animal heat, and vivified by the juices of the body, bring 
about many of the diseases of the animal (perhaps even 
the untimely casting of the calf), the immediate causes of 
which are to be found on our own premises, and in 
our own neighborhood, and should not always be consid- 
ered as epidemic, or as arising from atmospheric changes. 



— 29 ~ 

On examining by the microscope, these germs upon 
portions of plants that had been encelled, their life seemed 
to have been destro_yed by the gases, vapors, and acids 
that had arisen during the period of ensillation. 

Microscopic examinations have led me to the conclu- 
sion, that these fungi and spore forms of life, found so 
abundantly upon all vegetable growths, and which are so 
detrimental to the health of animals, have been destroyed 
by ensillation ; consequently, as this encelled food has 
been disinfected by the slight chemical changes it has under- 
gone during its preservation in the Silo, I therefore feel 
confident in predicting, that cattle fed on good ensilage, 
will be either altogether exempt from many of the dis- 
eases which liave hitherto afflicted them, or, that these 
[)articular sporoid diseases, themselves, will be greatly 
modified. 

BENEFICIAL EFFECT OF ENSILAGE UPON ANIMAL PRODUCTS. 
BUTTER, CHEESE, ETC. 

Why has butter less flavor and color in winter than in 
summer? It is because the aroma, coloring principle, and 
flavors, are carried off* from the green grass by heat, and 
the water of evaporation while the hay is being made. 

All grains, flowering plants, and odorous vegetables, 
generally have certain valuable properties, aroma, flavors, 
or essential oils, ethereal in their nature, which are taken 
away by winds and the atmosphere, dried up by the tem- 
perature and the sunshine, or appropriated by the seed, 
if the plant be allowed to fully ripen. 



— 30 — 

What is more agreeable to the senses, than the gentle 
zephyrs of the ever welcome spring, wafting sweet aromas 
from fields redolent with honeysuckle and sweet clovers ? 

How eager, with keenly awakened sense, we sniff the 
fragrant blossoms of the thickly budding orchard. 

A whiff of the honey laden air, from the lee side of the 
buckwheat field in full blossom, is a fragrant joy never 
to be forgotten : while we inhale with ever renewed de- 
light, the early summer breezes coming to us laden with 
the balmy perfume of sweet scented grasses with the 
wild violet, and delicate anemonie strewn amongst the 
tender blades. 

These fine aromas, and pleasing scents, are not mere 
ethereal properties cast upon the air and having no value 
upon the nutritive character of the plant, but are indeed 
material qualities, having a marked effect on the ap- 
petite of the cow, and upon the palatable flavor of her 
products, and therefore desirable to be retained. Yes; it 
is just these properties, so valuable to the milk, which the 
parching sun distils from the dewy grass, and sips from 
the budding plant, only to be absorbed and borne away 
by the floating atmosphere ; but they should be retained, 
and made to impart their fragrance to the butter and 
the luscious cream. 

In summer, too, when the cow can get such delicious 
food to eat, when she can crop the sweet green grasses, 
the succulent corn, and gather in the honeyed juices 
of the clover, is it any wonder that the milk and 
the butter should have a fine, agreeable odor and delicate 



— 31 — 

flavor ? For this tender, summer food is easily digested, 
and converted into protein and fat, supplying the nour- 
ishing casein of the cheese, and the delicious olein and 
margarine of the butter. 

But in winter all these conditions are reversed, the most 
valuable properties of the summer pasturage have dis- 
appeared, the hay has lost the greater part of its flavor in 
drying, the nutritive juices of vegetable growths have 
been mainly absorbed in the reproducing seeds, con- 
sequently the butter and the cream, are pale, inodorous, 
and tasteless. 

But can the winter butter be made to rival its more 
richly endowed predecessor of the summer ? This is the 
question uow disturbing the minds of the progressive 
dairymen and farmers. I believe the problem has received 
its solution in Ensilage; for the volatile properties of the 
bud and the ftower are mostly saved and preserved by 
encelling the plant while in the green and aromatic state ; 
the honeyed blossom of the clover can be made to retain 
its nectar in the milk, and the sweetest scent of the new 
mown hay, can be made to impart its fragrance to the 
butter. The encellated food, indeed, retains nearly all the 
flavoring properties of the fresh, green food. 

It is well known to every farmer, that during spring 
and early summer pasturage, onions, leeks, garlics, cives, 
bitter mints, etc., impart unpleasant tastes and qual- 
ities to milk, and that their flavors are retained in 
the butter. Tliere are also other unpleasant grasses 
occasionally, and accidentally licked up by the herb-crop- 
ping cow, greatly to the detriment of the milk and butter, 



.)Z 

which, indeed, are often times so injured by these flavors 
as to be rendered quite unpalatable. 

Bitter and unpleasant flavors can be imparted at ivill, 
to the lacteal products of the cow. This may be easily 
proved, by feeding a milch cow with a mess of turnips, 
or plants of unpleasant odors. 

I ask, if disagreeable tastes can thus be imparted to milk 
and butter, through feed to the cow, why cannot agreeable 
flavors and ijleasant aromas likewise be imparted, and re- 
tained at will ? 

COLOR. 

The color of milk and butter is effected by the various 
coloring matters in the herbs and grasses which the 
animal eats. The staining juices of many plants, and the 
various tinted chlorophyls, impart their hues to the milk ; 
the green coloring principle of the grass, the yellow tint 
from the carrot, and the juices of other roots, all have 
their modifying eff'ect upon the color of the milk and but- 
ter. The chlorophyl, which is the coloring principle of 
the green leaves and grasses, is much changed by drying, 
but in a great part is preserved by encelling. 

Milk is of various hue and quality from different cows, 
even when fed upon the same food. This can be accounted 
for only by the peculiarity of the cow's nature, by her spec- 
ial physical character, and sometimes even by her own 
color, as the yellow, the white, and the black cow, are all 
liable to give a somewhat different shade of milk. 



II 



— 33 — 

It is said, too, that being fed on carrots will color the 
cow's milk and the butter made from it. The food in 
winter differing so gi'eatly from the food in summer, has 
a marked effect upon the milk, much of the coloring 
matter having l)een bleached out and dried away. The 
aroma, also, depends very much upon the kind of feed. 

These, then, are the causes effecting the color, flavor 
and aroma of the various dairy products of the cow. 

Perhaps the time is not far distant, when these color- 
ing principles will be fed to the cow, in her winter food, 
and instead of putting annatto artificially into our butter 
in its making, we will supply our placid bovine with the 
means to color the butter herself. 

The plants of summer certainly contain the coloring 
principle, and science will yet teach us how to retain it. 

QUALITY AND QUANTITY. 

That cows greatly vary both in the quantity and 
quality of their milk and butter, is a fact too well known 
to need discussion ; but just why there should l)e such 
wide variations in these respects is still, to a great extent 
an open question. 

Doubtless much depends upon constitution and phys- 
iological peculiarities. 

Speaking in a gener^ way, milk has always similar 
qualities, although there are certain variations in the 
composition and character of milk, yet they are limited 
in degree. 

Whatever may be its source, milk contains in its nat- 
ural state a nitrogenous element, as casein and carbona- 
ceous elements, as fats and sugar. 



k 



— :'>4 — 

The milk of cows, however, is not of uniform qual- 
ity. Certciin kinds as the Alderny, give a very large 
proportion of butter and but Utile milk, others give a 
large proportion of casein, and others an unusual pro- 
portion of water. 

The kind and quantity of food, also greatly influence 
the quality of milk, so that with good provender and 
plenty of fresh, sweet grass, the milk is relatively richer 
in solids, and abounds in fats. 

The effect of insufficient food on the quantity and con- 
stituents of milk was proved by Dr. De Caisne during 
the late siege of Paris. In his inquiries upon the effect 
produced by milk on children, he found that with much 
milk children thrived ; with little or bad milk, childrei^ 
had diarrhoea ; with scarcely any milk, children died. 
A well fed cow, then, means healthy children. 

Now, while I firmly believe that ensilage combines and 
unites all the important qualities of a nourishing food 
for the cow, yet, I would caution the farmer who is ex- 
perimenting wdth ensilage, against the ready error of as- 
cribing to the encellated food, the variations and deficien- 
cies which exist rather in the nature of the cow and in 
other definable causes ; for some cows differ in their re- 
productive and producing powers, their vital organs are 
more active and more powerful, they differ in their phys- 
iological structure, they are, in fact, differently constitut- 
ed ; and just as one animal differs from another in any, 
or all of these natural conditions, so will their products 
vary. 

Ensilage is rich in starchy compounds, and w^hile there 



— 35 — 

is nothing lacking in it necessary to sustain life and 
support the non-producing animal in good condition, yet 
to the milch cow, for the enriching of her milk, it would 
be well, in addition to the ensilage to supply extra 
nitrogenous elements, such as bran, shorts, cotton seed, 
oil meals, &c. in proportion to the quantity of milk she 
gives. 

^VHAT IS BRAN ? 

Are farmers aware, that bran, as produced in our im- 
proved and modern mills is entirely different from the 
bran that Avas produced and fed to animals twenty years 
ago ? While our bran formerly contained much of the 
gluten of the wheat which was highly nutritive, a great 
deal of the bran of the present day is but the mere ex- 
ternal skin (or epocarp) of the wheat and contains no 
nourishment ivhatever. 

To supply this gluten poor corn meal is now frequently 
mixed with the naked skins or epocarps of the wheat, 
giving the mixture the appearance of bran, so that what 
is now called bran is often but little more than adul- 
terated meal. 

This, as well as some other points that might be named 
are important, for the milk producing farmer who is feed- 
ing ensilage to consider, that ensilage may receive its 
due credit, and not be rejected or condemned for lacking 
qualities properly belonging to other foods. 

The only way to judge ensilage fairly is to compare its 
results with the results of other food under like conditions. 

Good feed to a healthy cow ^(;^^^ produce good milk, and 
is more profitable for the farmer. 



— 36 — 



FERMENTATION. 



Fermentation is the beginning of digestion. Flour 
taken into tlie mouth and mingled with the saliva which 
acts as a ferment, is changed into glucose, and like grape 
sugar is uncrystallizable. 

Starch car. be changed into glucose by being acted 
ujDon by various acids. 

Some persons, in their first experiments with Silos and 
Ensilage, on opening the silo have found an alcoholic 
odor, and the ensilage somewhat sour. This is the nor- 
mal condition of the ensilage, for I have never seen any 
that did not have this odor and slight acidity. 

But this condition is no disadvantage to the ensilage ; 
on the contrary it is that w^hich imparts the agreeable 
flavor so much relished b}^ the animal. Furthermore, 
the acids found in all ensilage assist in preparing the 
starch of the ensilage for being changed into glucose 
in the stomach of the animal. 

They have also found portions of the ensilage mouldy, 
musty and rotten. 

This condition is only found on, or near the top, and is 
owing solely to the. air having been allowed to get in 
upon the surface where the action of the spore of Penicilli- 
wn (always floating in the air w^ith other furlgi) produces 
.s'M,r/ace mold. This should be remedied by firmly secur- 
ing the wspaces between, and at the ends of the planks. 

As the atmosphere is one-fifth oxygen, and four-fifths 
nitrogen; when the ensilage is trodden down and the air 
forced out (excepting what remains in the interstices of 
the fodder) only a small quantity of oxygen can be left 



i 



— 37 — 

in it to excite fermentation or support spore life of the 
infusoria, wliich is always present when sugar is changed 
into alcohol ; and we are taught by alcoholic examina- 
tions made by Pasteur and others, that oxygen in chemi- 
cal combination with hydrogen and carbon becomes sep- 
arated from the sugar, and goes to support the organ- 
isms which attend the work of fermentation with the 
change of the sugar, into alcohol. 

As this ferment is connected with the work of living 
germs or spores (which have received the name of Torula,) 
and these spores live upon either the sugar or glucose 
contained in the liquid of grape juice, apple juice and 
other vegetable fluids, when all the sugar is broken up 
and changed into alcohol and carbonic acid gas, the 
spores must die by starvation for the want of more 
sugar, and thus saccharine fermentation will cease, when 
another fermentation is likely to be set up accompanied by 
another spore (Mycoderma aceti) w^hich will oxydize the 
alcohol into acetic acid or weak vinegar. 

Therefore, the amount of acetic acid formed, and of 
carbonic acid given off, can only be in proportion to the 
quantity of sugar, or alcohol that is oxydized, and to the 
quantity of oxygen consumed. The air that is retained 
within the interstices of the fodder, and which is not 
pressed out by packing and weighting of the ensilage, 
supplies the oxygen for oxydizing a portion of the exist- 
ing sugar in the ensilage into alcohol and acetic acid. 

The pickle is now perfected, and no further change can 
take place. 



— 38 — 

HEAT 

A Silo filled with cut forage or corn stalks, will become 
heated in proportion to the quantity of sugar converted 
into alcohol and acetic acid. This can be easily proved 
by boring a hole through one of the central planks, 
thrusting down a rod or bar, and then lowering a ther- 
mometer into the hole, letting it remain a few minutes 
and then examining it. Carefully plug the hole after- 
wards. The Ensilage, will not rot, as the acetic and 
carbonic acids produced by the fermentation, pickle and 
preserve it. The acetic acid can undergo no change, 
unless while dissolved in the juices and other organic 
substances of the ensilage it becomes exposed to the 
atmosphere ; and the carbonic acid, fames of alcohol and 
alde-hyde can only escape when the ensilage is dis- 
turbed. 

Now such a condition cannot take place until after the 
Ensilage is taken from the silo and exposed for many 
hours in the open air; it will then, like all other organic 
substances, become mould}^, and decay, but it does not 
become injured under 24 hours of such exposure in 
ordinary weather. 



I have made many experiments in preserving vegetable 
substances in pure carbonic acid gas, likewise, with pure 
nitrogen gas, also with pure ox3^gen, and have found that 
no fermentation in vegetable substances will take place if 
all the materials have been purified from living germs; 
proving to my mind conclusively that all fermentations 
are associated with some form of living organism. 

I have preserved many vegetable substances by car- 
bonic acid alone, and propose to build a cheap experi- 



— 39 — 

mental Silo this season, in which I shall cause the Ensil- 
age to be immersed in, and saturated with, carbonic acid 
gas as fast as it drops into the silo. I shall construct 
this silo as follows : Dig a round pit in the ground some 
10 or 12 feet deep, in size, as circumstances may demand. 
Then plaster up the sides with good water-lime cement 
and gravel, in a manner similar to Fargo's rain water 
cisterns, using a heavy coat of cement to give strength to 
the walls, so they will stand the pressure of the surround- 
ing banks of earth. At the lower part of this cell (or Silo) 
I shall construct a perforated floor, or diaphragm, raised 
a few inches from the bottom of the pit ; this bottom of 
the pit being made with a central hollow, or depression, 
in which a leaden basin or suitable vessel may be placed. 
Against the wall of the silo I shall arrange a tube pass- 
ing under the flooring to the central basin, for the pur- 
pose of pouring in acids when required. Into this leaden 
basin (or other vessel) which is set into the hollow of the 
pit, I shall place a quantity of carbonate of lime, or other 
carbonates, which may be decomposed by causing mineral 
acids to run down the tube and come in contact with the 
carbonates, which will then unite with their bases and 
liberate their carbonic acid, which, ascending through the 
perforated diaphragm, will permeate the ensilage and 
destroy the spore germs and other vital organisms, which 
assist in and facilitate fermentation, thus preventing fer- 
mentation and other chemical changes of the ensilage. 
The silo might be partially filled with the gas before 
the chopped material is thrown in, or again, this tube may 
be sunk on the outside of the silo, or built into the wall 
with it as a permanent fixture, entering the space between 
the bottom of the pit and the perforated flooring through 
thft lower part of the silo wall. By connecting this tube 



— 40 — 

with a gas generator, or reservoir, set up in any con- 
venient place, gasses can be forced down by pressure. 

Carbonic acid or other gases may be forced down 
through this tube for the purpose of expelling the atmos- 
pheric air, and thus arresting any fermentation, mould, 
or other fungoid growth that may take place in free 
oxygen. 

Food and fodder that I have prepared and submerged 
in carbonic acid, has an agreeable relish, and is readily 
eaten by animals. 

The method of introducing the gas by the same pres- 
sure under which it is produced, is the most convenient, 
as it can thus be generated and regulated, and let into 
the silo in small or large quantities, as the silo is being 
filled with the chopped food. 

The gas being heavy, it will remain at the bottom of 
the silo beneath the atmosphere, and thus its flow can be 
so regulated that during the filling of the silo the quant- 
ity of gas will be equal to the quantity of ensilage at any 
one time in the silo, and will thus submerge it. A silo 
made in this way must not be entered when opened 
without first testing, by means of a burning candle, the 
amount of carbonic acid present. It might otherwise 
prove fatal, as has happened in entering an exhausted 
beer vat. In my silo I shall arrange an apparatus by 
which the gas can be allowed to escape through a valve at 
the bottom before opening it. For several 3^ears past I 
have preserved fruits and vegetable substances by sub- 
merging them in an atmosphere of carbonic acid, and 
have found that they can be completely preserved in 
both flavor and color for one or two years, or until the 



11 



— 41 — 

cans were opened for use. I propose now to make this 
trial on a larger scale, and should it be as successful as 
with the small apparatus which I now^ have in my labor- 
atory I shall report accordingly in an appendix to this 
pamphlet. 

HEAT. 

As all vital action is accompanied by heat, so all fer- 
mentations in organic bodies such as rot, mould and de- 
cay are chemical effects attended with vital action or, 
germs and spore life, and are accompanied with more of 
less heat as in the fermenting grape or apple juice while 
they are being changed into wine or cider ; this heat, in- 
creasing with the extent and rapidity of oxydization 
and the iatensity of vital action. 

ACIDS. 

Acids are used in changing corn and potato starch 
into glucose and grape sugar. Consequently the ensilage 
in this state of mild fermentation from which the atmos- 
phere is excluded, is in a condition when taken into the 
stomach of the cow, to have its starch at once acted upon 
by its acids and immediately converted into glucose 
and other compounds necessary to sustain and support 
the life of the animal and to enrich her milk. 

We find the desire for a certain amount of acidity in 
food to be a universal one w^th man, and what is known 
as a sub-acid diet is the most wholcoome, as a uniform 
sweetness palls upon the taste and cloys the apetite. The 
New Englander uses vinegar on his baked beans and boiled 
Cabbage ; the German on his Sauer Kraut ; the French- 
man on his salad, and the Chinaman on his chow-chow. 



— 42 — 

Then wh}^ not quicken the appetite of the good Kine that 
yields us so many luxuries and fills our dairy with cheese 
and butter and bovine nectars? Give our faithful Rumin- 
ant a condiment by means of her encellated fodder. Farm- 
ers need have no fears that any bad qualities will be 
found in the milk, for this acid but excites the flow of 
saliva, and assists in changing the starch of the ensil- 
age into the sugar which appears in the milk. 

VINEGAR IN ENSILAGE. 

The amount of vinegar in the ensilage is really but 
small compared with the amount of fodder. Green corn- 
stalks without the leaves or tops, contain about 13 per 
cent of sugar. This sugar changed into alcohol could 
not produce more than six per cent of alcohol ; and 
should this alcohol become changed into acid (vinegar) 
there could not be more than two per cent of acid in 
the ensilage, as a portion of the alcohol is evaporated 
before the acid fermentation takes place ; so the quantity 
of acid in the silo would only be about equal to the pro- 
portion of vinegar that we use on our table vegetables. 

Vinegar is an anti-septic. It preserves animal tissues 
and vegetable substances when they are excluded from 
the air, and it kills Bacteria^ or spores that feed on animal 
putrefaction. 

THE NUTRITIVE STATE OF GRASS. 

It has long been known, and many wise farmers have 
acted upon the knowledge, that grass contains a greater 
amount of nutrition wdien in blossom, than at any time 
before or after. 

Corn is a mammoth grass, and like grass should be cut 



I 



— 4 



o 



when in full bl6om, as it then contains the greatest 
amount of sugar and nourishment in a soluble condition. 
All vegetable fibres become woody when the seeds, ber- 
ries or fruits have ripened, and should therefore be pre- 
served before this ripening period, when the elements 
that enter into their composition are in the most abund- 
ant and healthy condition, are easily digested, readily 
assimilated, and most favorablv adapted for sustaining 
life. 

Hogs and cattle will fatten more readily upon green 
corn in the milk, than they will upon the dried stalks 
and kernel, as then the entire elements of the food, being 
in a soluble state, are easy to be absorbed and assim- 
ilated by the tissues of the body. ^ ' ; 

Cor7i Oil is a carbo-hydrate. Hence the meal of corn 
and also of cotton seed is food for fattening animals, and 
likewise furnishes the buttery qualities of milk. I should 
therefore advise that they be made use of in feeding 
ensilage to milch cows. 

Cotton Seed Oil not only has excellent milk producing 
properties, but the manure from it is highly valuable as 
a nitrogenous fertilizer, and, as a manure, is considered 
as valuable as before it went into the animal. Corn lacks 
this property. 

Corn is so prolific that a given extent of land, cultivat- 
ed with it, will yield a greater quantity of nutriment 
than by any other plant of the temperate zone fitted for 
animals and man, and is by far the cheapest food in all 
portions of the globe where it is grown. 

Bye has been recommended as an addition to corn 



— 44 — 

ensilage, and it is a valuable one, for the rye being rich 
in nitrogen and magnesian phosphates it supplies to the 
corn ensilage the necessary elements for the production 
of rich milk, and gives to the food those qualities which 
are supplied by sprouts, and it may thus be found un- 
necessary to feed so much bran when the green rye is 
mixed with ensilage. Soil well manured ought to yield 
10 tons of green rye per acre. This can be chopped and 
encelled alone or with the green corn stalks. 

Clover and Rye are two nitrogenous producing plants 
which may be advantageously mixed with the corn en- 
silage, and I would advise in not more than one-fourth 
proportion to the corn. 

The Cow Pea (or bean), being rich in nitrogenous ele- 
ments, will also be found a valuable addition to the 
ensilage, in limited quantities, especially where clover 
or rye can not to be conveniently grown. 

The value of ensilage as a fertilizer. 

It is useless to suppose that the earth is self-product- 
ive ; that it can of itself reproduce its own elements ; 
therefore, what the living principle organizes and takes 
away from it, must be restored or the soil will become 
non-productive, as the sterile and long neglected farms 
of our eastern states are every day telling us with all 
the pleading eloquence of helpless poverty. 

The farmer who feeds his corn as ensilage and re- 
turns it to the soil as manure is replacing to the land 
all that has been taken from it, with the exception of 
the phosphates of potash, magnesia, lime, and soda, which 
are retained in the milk and disposed of in the sale of beef, 



I 



— 45 — 

milk, butter, and cheese. And, in order that his farm 
may be kept in a reproducing condition, these last named 
elements must be restored to the soil in just propor- 
tion to the quantity of those elements that have been 
disposed of in sending from the farm the milk, beef, 
veal, mutton &c, or else, sooner or later, he will 
find that his soil will have become exhausted of these 
productive elements, and the true wealth of his farm 
has been gradually disposed of through the sale of its 
products; for it is idle to suppose that the earth can 
yield to plants, elements which its soil no longer con- 
tains. It is easy to be seen, therefore, that if he is de- 
sirous of continuously raising large crops of fodder, he 
will be obliged to supply more manure than is yielded 
by his ensilage fed stock ; and hence some of his fertil- 
izers must be sought from other sources, as ground bones, 
which are phosphate of Lime, and which enter largely 
into the composition of milk, flesh, bone, and nerve; and 
must be in them in order to perfect their normal qual- 
ities. 

Fossil Organic Phosphates are now provided in large 
quantities from the fossil beds of South Carolina; and 
mineral phosphates such as Apatite (crystal phosphate of 
lime) are found in large quantities in Canada and Nor- 
way, and with other forms of phosphates, in other por- 
tions of the globe ; all of which are now necessarily 
becoming staple articles of commerce. 

POTASH. 

Again, as Potash is consumed or taken in large quan- 
:^ tities from the earth by the corn, the soil will eventually 



— 46 — 

become exhausted, and unless the potash be given back 
to the soil again, the crop will finally become limited in 
its growth, and the potash must therefore be supplied 
by artificial means if a continuous crop be desired. 

Within the last few years inexhaustible sources of 
potash salts have been discovered in the geological for- 
mations of Europe, and are now supplying the world. 

Wood Ashes are very valuable to the farmer, as they 
contain potash, phosphorous and other inorganic sub- 
stances which must be contained in every soil that yields 
large crops of life sustaining food. 

As nitrogen is contained in large quantities in all 
organic products, a nitrogenous element must exist in 
the manure which is used to replenish the soil, as in all 
cases we must in some way return to the earth the equiv- 
alent of what we have taken from it. 

Now the use of ensilage, as fodder, restores to the soil 
as manure all those elements not sold off, which are nec- 
essary to the reproduction of farm products, and our far- 
mers will therefore find in ensilage the long demanded 
and much wished for fertilizer. All these principles of 
artificial fertilizers enumerated above, refer more aptly to 
the old and nearly worn out farms of the Eastern and 
Atlantic States, but will sometime be applicable lo the 
prolific soils of the west, as a continuous cropping must 
finally exhaust even the richest and most productive soil. 

In a treatise on Agricultural Chemistry intended to 
follow this pamphlet, I hope to be able to set forth these 
principles more fully. I shall state them in a simple 
and comprehensive manner, within the ready under- 
standing of every reader. 



— 47 — 

A word to our southern farmers. 

I would like here to suggest an experiment to southern 
farmers and cotton producers. 

It is well known, for chemical examinations have 
proved, that the green cotton plant, while in its tender 
state, is rich in nutritive qualities, which under the pres- 
ent system of cultivation are usually lost by the stalks 
being allowed to dry and decompose in the field after the 
cotton has been gathered. As for some time after the 
cotton is picked the stalk remains green and juicy, the 
plant could be cut and added to the ensilage, and as it 
contains all or man}^ of the life sustaining qualities it 
might become one of his most valuable additions to 
encelled fodder. 

Selling the cotton seed: When the southern farmer sells 
his cotton seed and allows the stalk to dry up, he is carry- 
ing away nearly all the nitrogenous principle of the plant, 
and much of the more valuable portions of both the or- 
ganic and inorganic elements of the plant. But by en- 
eelling his green cotton stalk he can make his cotton 
plant fodder as valuable, per ton, for his stock as the 
average crop of hay is to the northern farmer, 

CLIMATE, 

Considerations of climate need not deter the southern 
farmer from trying silos and ensilage, for if the silos are 
successful in France, Spain and Italy, why should they 
not be in our middle and southern States? 

Well constructed, and well secured silos, will preserve 
food in the southern States, if the fodder be taken from 
the field fresh, cut fine and immediately compressed 



— 48 — 

in the silo and the air excluded from it. As it is? 
warmer in the sooth, no time shonld be lost in secnring; 
it from4he warm air, as light and increfise of temperature 
facilitate chemical changes in animal and vegetable sub- 
stances, 

HTON'OK TO whom: HON^OR IS DFE, 

First experiments in Ensilage. M. Augustus Goffart 
is the man whom farmers in all parts of the world must 
honor as being the first to make successful experiments 
for preserving green food for cattle without drying or 
haying. He began his experiments about 30 years ago.. 
He has done more to improve cattle feeding and to save 
labor in tending stock than any other man, and his name 
ought to be perpetuated in the grateful memory of all 
men honoring worthy deeds. He has not only enabled 
man to store food for animals in its original juices, and 
thus to preserve all its nutritive qualities, but to preserve 
them in a more palatable condition, and with an im- 
portant preservation of valuable qualities heretofore lost 
by drying and haying. 

He has shown how an immense saving of space is 
gained by dispensing with expensive barn room. He has 
also done away with a great deal of arduous labor ; the 
work of curing hay under the sun's broiling heat is now 
swept away, for the green grass is put into the Silo ; and 
not only the grasses, but the smaller grain bearing cereals 
can be encelled with the maize or stalks of corn. 

WHAT DOES ALL THIS REVOLUTION BRING ABOUT? 

The farmer who stores his fodder in silos has so much 
less to fear from lightning or whirlwinds ; from the torch 



— 45 — 

of the inceiidiar}^, the careless match, or neglected pipe 
of the lodging tramp. 

He saves insurance on costly barns and stores tlie 
nourishment of the bulky ton of hay in the s})ace of a few 
cubic feet, where fire cannot consume, nor winds destroy. 

This revolution means more healthful milk, butter, 
■cheese and all the products of the dairy raised on our 
farms in increased quantities, and at less price than from 
the distant west. 

And the young farmer with only a few modest roods of 
ground, can now outrival the broad acres of his ancestrcd 
predecessor ; and even the mechanic with his little vil- 
lage lot can with equal readiness supply his family with 
the luxuryof pure milk and sweet odorous butter. 

This revolution, too, means that by the use of encelled 
food there can be raised near our large cities and sea port 
towns, beef, mutton, and pork in quantities to well com- 
pete with the interior States ; hid(>s and tallow can be 
found at home instead of being im[)orted so largely from 
aljroad ; and all this class of i)roductions, horsis, sheep, 
wool, hides and tallow can be so cheapened that the east 
will no longer be dependent on the west; for the small 
neglected farms of our eastern States can now bo made to 
vie with the large crops raised in the rich and fertile 
pi-airies of the far west. Freights would consequently 
be reduced, and thus the immediate hcane products 
of every farmer could each and all contribute their 
quota toward pulling down monopolies, and putting 
a stop to preferred freights. In fact, the amount of stock, 
and stock products the eastern States could thus raise 
at home, would be so great that they could be made 



— 46 — 

almost wholly independent of the west, and the staple 
articles most in demand could be supplied from our 
own neighboring lands. 

This revolution of M. GofFart means a liberal supply of 
sweet wholesome fodder to animals, instead of feeding 
them on sour slops from whiskey stills, hotel swill, and 
other refuse food which are better for fertilizing the soil, 
than for producing milk unwholesome for babes and 
invalids; milk quivering with Vihric and Bacteria en- 
gendering disease and death. 

This revolution once fairly inaugurated there will be 
in our towns and cities less Cholera Infantum and other 
complaints, which now carry off their thousands every 
summer ; there will be fewer new homes made desolate ; 
fewer weeping mothers with hearts sadly turning to cem- 
eteries closely strewn, with little graves. 

M. GofFart has done more for the agricultural interests 
of the world than any other man, living or dead. He has 
done for the agricultural interests of this country what 
Lafa3^ette did for our national liberties, and the blessings 
his experiments have conferred upon our national pro- 
ductions, in their effects upon humanity at large, find 
their fitting parallel only in the benefits conferred upon 
our nation by the sword of his illustrious countryman; 
and should he ever honor this country with a visit he 
will find as our patriots received Lafayette, so will 
the hearts of the farmers of our nation receive him. All 
our agricultural societies will welcome him with highest 
honors, and every tiller of the earth will gratefully pre- 
serve his name in everlasting memory. 

Where honors are due there let honors rest 



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